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Apple disclosed today that some Macs at the company - and elsewhere - have been affected by malware that exploited a vulnerability in the Java plug-in for Web browsers. The company said it does not believe it lost any data as a result of the attack, and it has rushed out a fix for the Java issue.

Reuters, which first broke the news of the attack, reports that the attack seemed to be from the same China-based hackers who launched an attack on Facebook that was disclosed on Friday.

Here's Apple's statement on the attack and its response:

"Apple has identified malware which infected a limited number of Mac systems through a vulnerability in the Java plug-in for browsers. The malware was employed in an attack against Apple and other companies, and was spread through a website for software developers. We identified a small number of systems within Apple that were infected and isolated them from our network. There is no evidence that any data left Apple. We are working closely with law enforcement to find the source of the malware.

Since OS X Lion, Macs have shipped without Java installed, and as an added security measure OS X automatically disables Java if it has been unused for 35 days. To protect Mac users that have installed Java, today we are releasing an updated Java malware removal tool that will check Mac systems and remove this malware if found."

While it certainly is good to here that Apple didn't lose any data, and admirable that the company is rushing out a fix, this kind of attack flies in the face of the widespread reputation of the Mac as far less vulnerable to hacking than Windows-based PCs.